Pune-based Northway Motorsports has been doing a lot of conversions from the standard petrol and diesel-powered vehicles to electric vehicles. Now they have officially launched a conversion kit that will convert a petrol or diesel vehicle to an electric car. The kit is road legal, and the converted car’s RC will get an endorsement from the RTO.
The first kit is for the sedans and it can be installed in most sedans available in the Indian market. Hemank Dabhade, the founder of Northway said that it is a plug and play kit and can be installed by simply removing the petrol or diesel engine of the car. This example is based on the new Maruti Suzuki Dzire.
There are two kits for the Maruti Suzuki Dzire available with Northway. The first one is Drive EZ and it gets a range of 120 km on a full charge. It takes five to six hours to charge through a regular socket. There is also a Travel EZ kit that utilises the same drivetrain but gets a bigger battery pack. With the Travel EZ, the Dzire can go up to 250 km on a full charge and it takes about 8-10 hours to charge the vehicle fully.
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The top speed will be 140 km/h for the private number plates and while the commercial vehicles will have a limited top speed of 80 km/h to adhere to the regulations. While there is no fast charging system available with the kits right now, Hemank Dbhade says that they will soon come out with fast charging systems.
Varied kits
There is also a Compact series that can be used to convert standard hatchbacks to electric vehicles. This kit is currently compatible with Polo, Beat and Swift and comes with a range of 120 km with a charging time of 5 to 6 hours. There is also an Expedition Kit that will be used to convert seven-seater vehicles like Ertiga. The vehicle will be able to do about 500 km on a full charge. It will come in the future.
Northway also revealed the Commercial Series that will have a range of 160-190 km with a charging time of 6 to 8 hours. It is currently compatible with Tata Ace. There is also a Performance Series that will power the high-performance vehicles for the enthusiasts. The details of the same are not out yet.
Kits can be booked online
You can book the kits online through the official website of Northway. To book the kit, you need to pay Rs 25,000 while the total cost of the kit will be between Rs 5 to 6 lakh plus GST as applicable. The delivery of the kit takes about six months and there are only a limited number of 500 kits available that will be sold on a first-come-first-serve basis.
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